French-Maltese artist and entrepreneur Samuel Sultana walks us through some of his latest and earlier works, and talks about his style and approach to art making; the influences-subjects that enliven his forceful and inscrutable compositions; and how he developed his passion of painting into business.

“My main art practice is painting – something which I have been exploring for around eight years. Over these years I’ve developed a very bold and explosive approach to painting, often labelled as ‘chaotic’ and ‘angry’. I also work in the film and business industry. For the past year I’ve been integrating my knowledge of business in art with the aim to become fully-sustainable as an artist.”

“I’m always striving to evolve and keep my art practice dynamic. Besides painting, I’m currently working on busts, tapestries, some digital artworks, 3D printed sculptures and a couple of film projects too. The painting behind these busts forms part of a new series. They are quite different from my earlier works (images below). The colours I’ve chosen are easier on the eye and the subject has become totally abstract. It’s challenging to move away from a previous style, that’s why a lot of artists tend to repeat themselves stylistically. Although marketing wise it helps to be consistent, it does tend to become stagnant and boring.”

“Acrylic house paint is my favourite medium. It allows me to achieve different surface textures and effects. Also, paint dries fast and is very easy to work with. For me, moving the artwork from production to marketing (and eventually sales) within a timeframe is just as important as the creative aspect. I operate as a business – with certain structures and procedures in place, a business plan, budgets…all managed by my team who also give a helping hand in the painting process. Despite the many struggles which we encounter operating in the art business, it’s always a great satisfaction seeing your work distributed in houses across the globe.”

“I do use other media in my work such as oil paint, charcoal and chalk pastels. I like trying out different things. For this particular piece for example, I also used markers.”

“These are Brown and Cloaca. My girlfriend and I got these chickens shortly after moving into our new place. We keep them in the garden outside but they like to come into the studio every now and again. This house-studio served as the set of my directorial debut – a short film adaptation of Oliver Friggieri’s ‘ir-Ragel tal-Klieb’. It was shortly after we closed filming last summer that we got in touch with the owners of the house and moved in. We like the layout of the place, the feeling of it…it’s quiet, spacious and has a lot of natural light.”

“At the start of my career I was afraid of doing abstracts; I felt it was cheap and stupid. So I would always end up trying to make the painting become something, and that something would always become either an animal or some strange creature. I started focusing on abstracts and experimenting with different styles and methods of painting after I finished my degree in teaching in Scotland a few years back.”

“Many of my paintings are inspired by Ayahuasca, a spiritual medicine which I once had tried out. Ayahuasca makes you look into yourself and identify aspects within you which have become knots (or complexes) as a consequence to life experiences and troubles – it helps you face these swirls and purge them.”

“Here are some of my earlier and more recent works. My earlier works (the ones characterised by dark and bright mysterious-looking forms) were either made in Canterbury or in Bristol where I had spent a year living in a squat with other artists and working with materials that I had found around the areas I was staying at, such as wood, bed sheets, burlap…”

“My approach to painting doesn’t allow any second guessing: it’s immediate, unfiltered…it’s a sort of a trance. Some paintings emerge much quicker than others, almost without pause – this is one of them.”

“This specific piece is an exploration of movement and form. The lines, which I’ve applied intuitively as I repeatedly rotated the canvas, evoke a sense of motion and suggest different shapes, forms, areas…I started using overlapping lines for shape making five years ago, when I was reading for an MA in fine arts in Canterbury. I consider this method of working as subconsciously authentic and honest as it emerges in a very organic way.”

“This painting is one of the simplest paintings I’ve ever made. It’s called ‘Re’ meaning King in Maltese…the King of Birds. I am fascinated with birds. I started drawing birds at a very young age; they were, in fact, amongst the first things which I drew on paper. If you take a closer look at my work, you will notice that most of the multiple creatures that co-exist in my paintings do take the form of a bird.”

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO VIEW MORE OF SAMUEL’S WORK YOU CAN DO SO BY FOLLOWING HIM ON INSTAGRAM samuelsultana.art. FOR FURTHER INQUIRIES OR PRIVATE VIEWING OF SAMUEL’S WORK EMAIL eve@evecocks.com

PHOTO CREDIT: evecocks.com